Tony Williams said he was in shock over Korey Stringer's death. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Tony Williams and Jimmy Gould spent Wednesday looking for a positive to take from the death of their close friend, Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer.

        Williams, a first-year Bengals defensive tackle who played the past four seasons with Stringer in Minnesota, found some comfort in the support Bengals coaches, teammates and employees showed him.

        Gould, Stringer's Cincinnati-based agent, spent the day at Stringer's Bloomington, Minn., home.

        Stringer died early Wednesday morning from heatstroke suffered during the Vikings' second training camp workout Tuesday.

        “I was in shock. I'm still in shock,” Williams said after head coach Dick LeBeau held him out of Wednesday afternoon's practice. “After being with the guys all day, my teammates have made me feel better, a whole lot better, with the concern the team had and how I could lean on them. I feel like I have a family here.”

        Gould, who represented Stringer — a Warren, Ohio, native and former Ohio State star — since 1995, was fishing in Michigan on Wednesday morning when he got a call from the Vikings and String er's wife, Kelci.

        Gould took a chartered jet to the Twin Cities and met Stringer's wife and mother at the hospital.

        “He was more than a client. He was a very dear friend,” Gould said late Wednesday afternoon by telephone from Stringer's home. “We were working to get him a job as a disc jockey, which he loved. He was learning to become a chef. He was peaking. He was coming into his own.”

        Stringer, 27, also is survived by a son, Kodie, 3.

        “There are human beings with wives and children and parents beneath the helmets,” Gould said. “We all try to be the best we can be in the NFL, but this is a time to stop and think about what's most important in life.

        “I'm trying to figure out why God would take him.”

        Williams, who signed with the Bengals in the offseason as a free agent, recalled the time a year ago when he and Stringer traveled to Las Vegas for a prize fight.

        “We got really close,” Williams said.

        He will wear Stringer's No.77 on his game tape this season, but, more important, will keep his friend in his heart.

        “I know (because of) my beliefs and my religion that, no matter what, he knows what I felt for him,” Williams said. “I want my teammates here to know I'm here to do my job. Korey would have wanted me to go on.

        “It's the game he loved, the game he played and the game he died with.”

Latest update from Associated Press
Determination cost Stringer his life
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